Have A Little Faith In Me
by StargazerLily18
Summary: Antonio struggles against the challenges of being a single parent. Is he fit to raise little Lovino on his own? Join Spain in his determination to be the best father he can be!
1. Prologue: A Tragedy

_**Prologue:**_

Antonio ran through the parking lot as quickly as his feet would allow him to go. His lungs hurt and sweat trickled down his temples but he couldn't stop now. He ran through the sliding doors of the emergency room. He stopped at the front desk in a panic.

"Por favor, can you please tell me where I can find Gabriella and Lovino Carriedo?"

The nurse looked startled, "They were taken through there. Are you her husband?"

He didn't give her time to finish the question. He ran, pushing through the double doors of the operating room, only to be immediately pushed back out by a male nurse.

"Sir, I'm sorry, you cannot be in there right now. We are in the middle of operating."

He struggled to get past him, "You don't understand! My wife and son! They need me!"

"Sir, you need to wait out here!" The nurse scolded again and forced him into a seat of the waiting room.

He looked around. It was completely empty with the exception of him. He couldn't sit. He got up and began pacing, running his fingers through his messy brown hair and trying to calm himself. Everything was going to be fine. Soon he would be visiting his wife Gabriella and his son in the ICU and, once they recovered, they would all go home and be a family again. This wasn't it. It couldn't be.

"Dios mio por favor let them come home to me."

About fifteen more minutes passed, though, to Antonio, it seemed like hours. The doctor came out of the room and took off his mask sighing. Antonio quickly walked up to him, anxious for a piece of news, something, anything. They looked each other in the eyes.

"Are you her husband?"

Antonio nodded.

The doctor lowered his head, "I am so sorry. We couldn't save her."

Antonio's heart sank. He could feel it burning and aching as he fell to his knees in tears. His wife, his wonderful beautiful wife, was gone. He physically began to ache as he held back a sob.

The doctor took off his glasses, "However, your son was not in as critical condition. He has a broken leg, a broken arm, a couple of broken ribs, and a rather nasty gash on his head but he will live."

Antonio looked up. His son was alive. Thank God.

"Would you like to see him?" The doctor asked.

Antonio nodded and the doctor helped him up and led him to the room they had been keeping the boy in. Antonio walked over to the hospital bed, starring at his sleeping son. He slowly sat down in the chair beside him. Lovino looked so peaceful, his brunette bangs, messy like his fathers, fell in his eyes as he slept. Antonio held his son's small hand, moving the bangs from his eyes and then sliding his hand down his plump cheek.

"My loving boy…my little Lovino…" He let his tears, this time of grateful happiness, spill over and drop onto the white sheets, "You are going to be bueno. I promise. Te quiero tanto…" He put his boy's hand to his forehead and continued to cry.


	2. Chapter 1: Being A Single Parent

**Chapter 1: Being a Single Parent**

Antonio stirred from a dead sleep, the morning air was nice and cool. It was Saturday so he didn't have to get up for work today. He didn't want to get out of bed either. He stretched and put his hands behind his head, closing his eyes. It had been six months since the loss of his wife. He remembered it quite vividly. He had gotten a call while he was making dinner, wanting to give his wife a break from cooking for once.

The hospital had called and informed him about the accident. His wife had gone to pick up their son from little bears soccer practice and was taking the freeway home. A truck driver, coming the opposite direction, fell asleep at the wheel, broke through the divider and hit her. She never saw it coming. It pained him to imagine what she must have been thinking at the time, if she wasn't already unconscious. Was she terrified? Wondering if Lovi was okay? Did she think of him? He certainly hadn't stopped thinking of her.

Almost everything he did reminded him of her. He just couldn't stop missing her and, even though he hoped it would get better, the longing for her only grew. Antonio closed his eyes, picturing her long dark hair, her sweet pink lips, rosy cheeks, and honey colored eyes. He could feel her soft skin and hear her adorable laugh. He could hear her tell him that she loved him.

"Gabriella…"

His fantasy was broken by the sound of the door opening. He knew it was Lovino. When Lovino was a little younger, he would crawl into their bed and snuggle in between them in the early mornings. He kept his eyes closed. He waited for his son to snuggle next to him and ask for him to wake up and play with him. That was why he didn't see the kick to the stomach coming.

"Wake up dad! I'm hungry and I don't know how to use the stove!"

Antonio grunted from the kick, holding his knee, "Lovi, that wasn't very nice!"

"Dad, I am so hungry! Come on get up!" Lovino hit his dad's arm and whined.

"Bien, bien, I'm up" he got out of bed and got on his slippers. He walked to the kitchen, Lovino toddling after him.

He opened the kitchen blinds, revealing the sunlight shinning down on the large garden in the backyard. It was abundant in flowers with a large tomato farm in the back. Lovi used to cry about how he couldn't go and work out on his father's tomato plantation with him so Gabriella had suggested they grow some right at home. Antonio had been taking care of the garden now that she was gone.

"I want a tomato omelet!" Lovino demanded.

"Si, si, It will be a little while Lovi. Go and watch the television until its listo, alright?" he smiled, putting on his cooking apron.

"Whatever." Lovino mumbled and walked to the living room.

Antonio sighed as he put the eggs in the frying pan and turned on the stove. He had had a lot of trouble being a single parent and he wished that he had someone around to help him. Granted, his friends would come over and help him out but a lot of the time he felt like he was by himself in this. Lovino was only 8 and had already lost his mother. Antonio had to be both a father and assume the mother role as well. How was he supposed to do that?

He was right in the middle of mincing the tomatoes when the phone rang. He quickly wiped his hands on a cloth and grabbed the phone off the wall.

"Hola." He answered.

"Bonjour Antonio." It was his old friend Francis, "I wanted to let you know I have returned from visiting my parents in splendid old Paris. How are things holding up for you my friend?"

"Oh, Francis, glad you're back mi amigo." Antonio walked back to the counter, making sure the phone cord was long enough for him to walk back to the kitchen island to continue mincing as he talked," Things are bueno." He said, still a little lost in his own thoughts.

Francis exclaimed disapprovingly." I know you better than that. Tell me what's on your mind." Nope. You couldn't get anything past Francis.

"Well, it's nothing new. I just am having-" He stopped himself and peeked through the kitchen counter window, checking to make sure that Lovino was occupied with the TV and spoke in a softer tone, " I'm having a bit of trouble on my own, you know? Lovino has had a muy malo attitude lately and I feel like we are growing apart. He doesn't want to be in fútbol anymore and his progress report was D's and C's. My boy was a straight A student and now he has just changed. I know the loss of his Madre is taking a toll on him and I wish I knew how to make him feel better."

"Oh mon ami, I don't know what to tell you. Perhaps you should buy a couple books on the subject, no?" Francis suggested.

He finished mincing and went to stir some ingredients into his home made salsa, "I guess I should. But I feel if I do then I-"the dial tone beeped. Letting him know that there was an incoming call, "Oh, un momento Francis, I have another call." He clicked over," Hola."

"Is this Mr. Carriedo?" A rather professional voice asked.

"Si, this is him." He responded.

"This is Ms. Hernandez, Lovino's teacher. I would like to schedule a parent teacher conference with you, if that is alright sir."

"Oh, si, may I ask para qué?" He opened the fridge to get out the large pack of shredded cheese.

"Well, it's for a few reasons, among them his grades." She said.

"Right, I could always take the day off of work and come in tomorrow?" he suggested.

"Will around noon work for you? The students are all out for lunch at that time."

"Sounds bueno, I will see you then Ms. Hernandez. Have a good day. Adios." He clicked back over to Francis, "Sorry amigo. That was Lovi's teacher calling to schedule a meeting."

"That does not sound good mon ami. I really think you should get out sometime and start talking to some women. I mean you aren't too young to where a woman that you fancy wouldn't know how to be a good mother. I just don't want to see your life be over before it has begun Ant." France lectured.

"Oh, amigo, I don't know if I am ready for that. It's only been six months and I'm still-"he was cut off yet again by the smoke alarm as the omelet went up in smoke. He had been so occupied that he had forgotten to check it.

"Ay!" he started to break out into a sprint to turn off the stove and fan the smoke out but he had forgotten that the phone was on a cord and was yanked back, falling to the floor. The phone flew out of his hand and landed on the edge of the plate of minced tomatoes sending them careening threw the air and onto poor Antonio's face.

Antonio lied there, looking shocked at the moment's events. He heard that France was still on the line. Using the counter to help him up, he grabbed the phone and put it to his ear, "Amigo, I'm going to have to call you back."

He hung up the phone and turned to see Lovino standing in the door way. Lovino just stared at his dad. Tomato chunks and juices dripped out of his hair and down his face and shoulders. Lovino just shook his head and walked back to the living room.

"Por el Amor de Dios, I can't seem to do anything right." He then sullenly cleaned up the mess he had made, trying to think of some sort of solution to their problem.


End file.
